Supplementing user web-browsing   

Abstract: An apparatus and method of providing a user with a web-browser supplement is disclosed. One method includes providing access to a focal group, wherein the focal group includes at least one member having at least one association with the user. Access is provided to information associated with the at least one member having relevance to the focal group. Web browsing by the user is supplemented by the information of the members of the focal group.

This patent application patent application is a continuation of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 12/316,992, filed on Dec. 18, 2008, which claims priority to provisional patent application No. 61/008,957, filed Dec. 21, 2007, which in herein incorporated by reference.

The described embodiments relate generally to web browsing. More particularly, the described embodiments relate to a method and apparatus for supplementing a user\'s web browsing.

The internet can connect individuals through, for example, a mesh of social networks, portals, commerce sites and forums. Many of these sites attempt to model relationships to facilitate commerce and build systems for providing recommendations. These social networks include many individuals that can interact with each other,

There is a lack, however, of a useful mechanism within social networks for mimicking interpersonal trust and reference networks. For example, if one needs to find a babysitter, a heart surgeon or a plumber, one generally turns to trusted friends to obtain references. That is, these referred service providers involve the well-being of family, and/or impact ones finances, and therefore, are typically naturally screened by the person looking for a reference. However, the recommendations provided by social networks do not include a personal connection between the recommender and the receiver of the recommendation. Additionally, the strength of the recommendations can be difficult to determine.

It is desirable to have a method, system and apparatus in which groups of commonly associated individuals can provide an internet user that is web browsing with additional intelligence. It is additionally desirable that the method, system and apparatus be adaptively updated as information associated with the groups change over time.

SUMMARY

One embodiment includes a method of providing a user with a web-browser supplement. The method includes providing access to a focal group, wherein the focal group includes at least one member having at least one association with the user. Access is provided to information associated with the at least one member having relevance to the focal group. Web browsing by the user is supplemented by information of the members of the focal group.

Another embodiment includes a method of overlaying web browsing with focal group intelligence. The method includes creating a focal group, wherein the focal group includes at least one other user having at least one association with the user. Information about the at least one other user having relevance to the focal group is obtained. Web browsing by the user is over-layed, thereby supplementing the web browsing by the user by providing information of the other users of the focal group.

Other aspects and advantages of the described embodiments will become apparent from the following detailed description, taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, illustrating by way of example the principles of the described embodiments.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 shows an example of a user computing device that can utilize methods of supplementing web browsing of the user.

FIG. 2 shows the computing device of FIG. 1, and examples of supplementing web pages being browsed by the user.

FIG. 3 is a flow chart that includes steps of an example of a method of supplementing a user\'s web browsing.

FIG. 4A shows an example of a visual display that can be used to adaptively depict relationships between a user and members of a focal group.

FIG. 4B shows another example of a visual display that can be used to adaptively depict relationships between a user and members of a focal group.

FIG. 5 is a flow chart that includes steps of an example of a method of overlaying web browsing with focal group intelligence.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

As shown in the drawings for purposes of illustration, the described embodiments are embodied in an apparatus and method for supplementing web browsing of a user. The web browsing can be of any form including textual, audio or visual formats, and can be supplemented with any combinations of textual, audio or visual formats, or any other format that can be used for web browsing.

FIG. 1 shows an example of a computing device 110 that can utilize methods of supplementing web browsing of a user of the computing device 110. For this embodiment, the user\'s computing devices includes a plug-in 120. An embodiment of the plug-in 120 is a software program that when executed supplements the user\'s web browsing by supplementing information provided by the web browsing with information associated with a focal group. That is, the user\'s web browsing is improved by manipulating the information provided to the user based on intelligence and information provided by members of the focal group, or obtained by members of the focal group.

As shown, the computing device 110 is connected through a network 130 to web server 140 and a focal group server 150. For this example, the web server 140 allows the user to “surf” internet, and access web pages. The web pages provide the user with information related to a subject as generally (but not exclusively) determined by the user. The web server 140 and the focal group server 150 are shown as separate servers. However, it is to be understood that this is merely one example of how access to web page information and focal group information can be provided.

As shown, the focal group server 150 maintains information of the focal group. Generally, this information includes the members of one or more focal groups that have some relationship with the user. Additionally, the focal group server 150 can maintain information of each user of each focal group. As will be described, the members of the focal group can be one or more individuals and/or corporate entities. The focal group can be created, or borrowed from somewhere else. The information associated with each member can include many things, such as, for example, preferences, knowledge, history of interactions with the user, and/or experiences of the member. Additionally, the focal group information can be supplemented with focal group applications.

Supplementing Web Browsing

Supplementing the user\'s web browsing can be provided in one or more ways. The web browsing can be supplemented by, for example, providing additional information to information provided by a web page, filtering information of the web page, and/or sorting information of the web page. Again, the supplementation is based on the information associated with members of the focal group, and therefore, the intelligence of the focal group members can be used to the advantage of the user when web browsing.

Focal Groups

Generally, a focal group is a small restricted group of people who are associated based on activity or topic. The focal group can include, for example, a group of friends, family members or people with common interests. As will be described, a focal group can include any number of members. The member can be individual people or even corporate entities. The focal group can include, for example, a single person who is considered an expert in a particular subject area, or the focal group can include many individual who are commonly associated by some activity or other criteria. The focal groups can be formed, or borrowed from somewhere else.

Focal Group Information

As described, web browsing of the user is supplemented by the focal group information. The focal group information can include, for example, a proficiency of group members, a degree of affinity between group members, a history of proficiency and affinity of group members, a member\'s rating by group members, reviews and/or opinions of the member, any information contributed by members, events involving a group member, actions taken by a group member, requests for information put in by other group members for a group member, and/or member ownership of a product or usage of a service. It is to be understood that an embodiment includes the focal group information being dynamic. Actions by each of the focal group member can cause the focal group information to change.

The described embodiments can include various types of information associated with the members of the focal group. One type of information is the affinity of each focal group member with the user. The affinity can be adaptive, and is generally based on the strength of the relationship and level of interaction between the each focal group member and the user. The affinity can be “deduced” and/or “assigned”. An assigned affinity is one that is given by one focal group member to another, based on an individual perception or information. A deduced affinity is one that is computed automatically from several assigned affinities, based on one or more affinity formulas.

For other embodiments, another type of information is a proficiency of each focal group member. The proficiency can be adaptive based on the level of competence and/or expertise regarding a subject matter. Proficiency can be “deduced” and/or “assigned”. An assigned proficiency is one that is given by one focal group member to another, based on an individual perception or information. A deduced proficiency is one that is adaptively computed automatically from several assigned proficiencies.

For other embodiments, another type of information includes focal group applications that can, for example, extend the overlay and run within the framework of overlay. An example of a focal group application includes, for example, an “add to wish list” application, that includes an icon displayed on a web page, such that when the icon is clicked (selected), it adds a given item (displayed on the original web page) to a focal group member\'s wish list. (A wish list in this context is a list of items that the user wishes to own—the list is maintained by the focal group user so that other users can access it, and provide, for example, gift ideas).

Overlay

As described, an embodiment of the supplementing the user\'s web browsing includes providing the user with a web overlay. The overlay provides an intelligent software framework that runs focal group applications, supplements, filters, sorts and displays the browsed information.

Overlay Plug In

An embodiment of the overlay plug in includes a software component installed on a user\'s computer. For an embodiment, the plug in is installed in a web browser as an extension. For an embodiment, the purpose of the plug in is to provide the user with access to Focal Group servers and communicate with the servers. More specifically, this embodiment includes sending contextual information describing the web location being visited by the user, and/or receiving instructions and information and/or knowledge enabling the plug-in software to supplement the browsed info.

FIG. 2 shows the computing device of FIG. 1, and examples of supplementing web pages being browsed by the user. FIG. 2 includes two exemplary web pages 210, 220 that have been supplemented by information of a focal group.

The web page 210 provides an example of a web overlay that supplements a web page being displayed by the computing device 110 by providing additional information to the display that is, for example, related to the information of the original web page being displayed by the computing device. The additional information provides the user with related information from a more likely to be trusted source (the focal group). The web page 210 as viewed by the user includes the original web page text, but additionally includes the overlay 212 that includes supplement text that can be related to the information of the web page. The supplemental text of the overlay is derived or based on the information associated with the members of the focal group.

The web page 220 provides another example of a web overlay that supplements a web page displayed by a computing device 110 by filtering information of the web page 220. That is, based on the information of the focal group, information of the original web page is filtered, thereby providing the web user with a better presentation of the original web page based on the information of the members of the focal group. The overlay 214 can include filtered or sorted information of the information associated with focal group. For one embodiment, the sorting amid/or filtering of the information associated with the focal group is based on the information of the web page 220. That is, either or both the information of the web page, or the information presented by the overlay 214, can be filtered and/or sorted based on the other of the information of the web page and the information presented by the overlay 214.

FIG. 3 is a flow chart that includes steps of an example of a method of supplementing a user\'s web browsing. A first step 310 includes providing access to a focal group, the focal group comprising at least one member having at least one association with the user. A second step 320 includes providing access to information associated with the at least one member having relevance to the focal group. A third step 330 includes supplementing web browsing by the user by providing information of the members of the focal group.

As previously described, one embodiment includes a plug-in loaded on the user\'s computer, that when executed, supplements the user\'s web browsing. A more specific embodiment includes the plug-in providing the user with a web-browser overlay. Execution of the plug-in provides the user with the web overlay that supplements web browsing by the user. More specifically, one embodiment includes the web overlay providing the information associated with the at least one member that has relevance to the web browsing of the user. Other embodiments include the web overlay filtering, and/or sorting information of, for example, a web page based on the information associated with the at least one focal group member.

For proper operation, the plug-in has access to the focal group, and to the information associated with the at least one member of the focal group. As previously described, the access can be through a network connected to the user\'s computer, and to one or more servers that maintain the members of the focal group, and the information associated with each of the users of the focal group.

As previously described, an embodiment for supplementing the web browsing includes an overlay. Based on information of, for example, web page being browsed by the user, an embodiment includes the overlay providing at least some of the information of the at least one member of the focal group. The web browsing of the user is supplemented by providing the user with focal group intelligence. That is, the information provided by the overlay enhances and improves the user\'s web browsing by providing the user with additional intelligence as provided by the information of each of the members of the focal group.

One embodiment includes the information provided by the overlay relating to information of a web page being browsed by the user. That is, the overlay supplements the web browsing by providing additional information (focal group information) that is related to the information being provided by the web site. Additional information can include, for example, past experiences of one or more of the focal group members, and/or recommendations by the one or more focal group members based on the past experiences.

The overlay can additionally or alternatively use the information of the focal group to filters information of the web browsing. That is, the information provided by web browsing can be filtered based on the information of the focal group. All of the information provided be a web page may not be useful, and the user\'s web browsing can in some situations be improved by filtering the information of the web page. One method of filtering the information includes filtering it based on information of the members of the focal group.

For example, a user can visit on online book store and view a page displaying a set of books. However, if the user has the overlay plug-in enabled, the displayed set of books may be a subset of the original results of the query, wherein the subset displayed is based on the filtering performed by the overlay plug-in. That is, for example, only the books owned or reviewed by members of the Focal Group, or by members having a certain affinity to the user or proficiency in the subject matter may be displayed.

The overlay can additionally or alternatively use the information of the focal group to sorts information of the web browsing based on the information of the at least one member of the focal group. That is, the information of the web can be sorted based on the information of the focal group.

For example, a user can visit a website that provides restaurant reviews, and the user can submit a query to find a good restaurant in a particular area. Originally (without the overlay), the results of the query that are returned by the website, for example, is sorted by ratings given by random reviewers. However, if the user has the overlay plug-in enabled, the sorting of the displayed results are further improved by strategically positioning the reviews produced by the members of the user\'s focal group who have high affinity or high proficiency in the subject (restaurant knowledge).

The overlay can additionally or alternatively filter the information provided by the overlay based upon the information of the web page. For example, if a user is visiting a photography website, one embodiment includes the overlay plug-in displaying information about only those members of the user\'s focal group that have relevance to the browsed page(s) in the photography website. For example, a user looking at a camera review of a website views (on the display) only the information of those members of the focal group who have reviewed or own the camera.

An embodiment of the overlay includes highlighting at least one web page with visual identifiers. The visual identifiers are related to the information associated with the at least one member having relevance to the focal group.

For example, if a user is browsing products at an online tennis gear store, each product can be visually annotated by the overlay plug-in with icons that reflect information from the focal group relevant to that product. Furthermore, the user can be allowed to click on (select) an icon to submit the information about the product he/she would like to be reviewed by the focal group.

it is to understood that the visual identifier include any one of many different implementations. That is, for example, the visual identifiers do not have to be icons. Additionally, other types of iterations between the user and other focal group members can be initiated by the visual identifiers.

For another example, the visual overlay depicts the affinity map of the user with the members of the focal group, and highlighting those members that are relevant to the browsed page. Exemplary affinity maps are provided in FIGS. 4A, 4B.

Another embodiment of the overlay further includes at least one of fetching or requesting the information of the at least one member of the focal group. For example, a user may click on icon provided by the overlay next to a product to request a specific member of the focal group to provide an opinion or a review about the product. This embodiment is very useful because it enables rapidly growth of the information of the entire focal group network, therefore making the overlay more powerful. Another embodiment allows, for example, a user to click (select) an icon, allowing the user to customize a review form and send it to members of the focal group.

It is to be understood that there can be methods other than the use of an overlay for at least one of filtering, sorting or appending information to information of a web page based on the information associated with the at least one meniber. That is, an overlay as shown and described here is one method of supplementing web browsing. Other methods of supplementing web browsing based on the information of a focal group are also possible.

An embodiment includes ranking the information associated with the members of the focal group. The general reasoning being that higher ranked information can have a greater influence on how the web browsing of the user is supplemented. For example, one focal group member may be identified as being a particularly good expert on the subject matter of the web page being accessed by the user. Accordingly an embodiment includes the information associated with the at least one member having relevance to the focal group, being ranked by a level of importance. For one embodiment the ranking of the level of importance of information is influenced by a perceived level of importance of each of the at least one member associated with the information. Other embodiments include the perceived level of importance of each of the at least one member being influenced by at least one of a member rank on a relevant topic, a level of affinity between the user and each member, a level of expertise of each member, a level of trust of each member, a level of performance of past information provided by each member, a level of proficiency of each member.

One embodiment includes the affinity between the user and each focal, group member having substantial influence over the ranking assigned to each focal group member. This can include, for example, the level of affinity between the user and each member adaptively varying over time based on actions of each member, or the user. If for example, the user has elected to enable the overlay plug-in access to the user\'s web-email account, then the overlay can infer changes in the affinity between focal group members based on, for example, how often the members send e-mails to each other. The affinity levels can fluctuate over time, based on increase or decrease of e-mailing activity between focal group members. It is to be understood that inferences of affinity variations are not limited to e-mail interactions between users. That is, other types of interactions between focal group members can influence the affinity between the members as well.

Another embodiment includes executing at least one focal group application within a web browser based on information of the members of the focal group. One example of a focal group application includes executing the at least one focal group application comprises requesting additional information from the members of the focal group. That is, for example, the user can invite or solicit another member of the focal group to provide a review/opinion about something. One embodiment additionally includes overlaying the focal group application\'s) over a web page being viewed by the user.

One example of a focal group application allows a user to join a focal group purchasing consortium to negotiate a better price with any vendor. A vendor can be any online store, as well as any focal group member. For one embodiment, a vendor can join a focal group and offer group discounts to focal group members. The focal group application retrieves vendor information relevant to that product and displays it to the user browsing another web page with relevant products or information (such as, pricing, targeted ads, or “sponsored” focal group results).

An example of a focal group overlay application includes an overlay browser installed into a user\'s web browser, and a focal group overlay web server. An exemplary embodiment of the focal group overlay web server includes focal network application business logic, a database, an application programming interface (API), and connection to a friend network provider. The focal network application business logic can include a layer of software code that embodies the actual logical rules related to updating and keeping current all focal group relations, data, and information. The layer of software code includes “business logic” as opposed to the other layers of the code that include common frameworks, web and database infrastructure. The database provides storage for focal group contents and focal group information. The API provides communication to the overlay plug-in. The connection to the friend network provides a connection to at least one of any available social networks.

The described embodiments can be illustrated by one example (a user browsing a catalog of products on an online store) of providing a user with a web-browser supplement. Initially, a user arrives at a merchandise selection webpage in an online store. An overlay plug-in sends a uniform resource locator (URL) of the browsed page to a focal group overlay web server, invoking a corresponding API call. In response, the focal group overlay server sends information parsing rules that allow the overlay plug-in to analyze the content of the page. The overlay plug-in analyzes the web page and parses the identity information about each particular product, such as product brand, product title, product model, serial number or PLU or barcode. The overlay invokes another server API call, passing the collected information to the focal group overlay web server. The focal group web server can respond, for example, with multiple lists for each identified product on the page.

An exemplary list can include a list of “experts”. That is, members of the focal group sorted by highest proficiency, with names, photos and other information about each member, including any related product reviews created by these members.

Another exemplary list includes a list of “close friends”. That is, members of the focal group sorted by highest affinity, with similar information for each member,

Another exemplary list includes a list of “actions” related to this product. The actions list can include a “request review” in which a user is able to ask one or more members of a focal group for an opinion/review of this item. Other action lists can include, for example, a “Submit review” in which a user can provide his/her own review, an “I own it” in which a user can let other members of the focal know that he/she owns this item, a “Rate it” in which a user provides a “thumbs-up/thumbs-down” type of quick voting button, to let the user cast a rating vote about this product, an “Add to wish list” in which a user can let other focal group members know that this is an item he/she doesn\'t mind receiving as a gift, and a “Group bargain” in which a user can add him/herself into a group of people who want to team up for buying this item at a bulk discount.

As previously described, the focal group overlay can include focal group applications. The focal group overlay can include, for example, an action button (or icon) that invokes a specialized focal group application. The plug-in can render (creates visual elements for), for example, two lists of focal group members (reviews of experts & reviews of friends) as welt as action icons/buttons that enhance the currently browsed page. The resulting page that is displayed to the user, is a merge of the original product page, as sent by the web server of the online store, plus the elements created by the overlay plug-in. The additional visual elements (pictures of focal group experts/friends and action buttons) are displayed next to the related product items on the page. The user can click on (select) any friend or expert\'s photo or name, and read the review or rating for each product. Additionally, the user can click on any “action” icon to invoke the corresponding action. This way, the user is able to use the knowledge of his/her focal group to help decide on the purchase of a product. Using the “action” icons, the user contributes to the knowledge of his focal group (e.g. by providing his/her own review, or by requesting a review).

An embodiment of the web-browser supplement allows, for example, third party developers to add their own focal group applications. One example of a focal group application includes a mini-button or an icon displayed next to any item on the page that is recognized by the overlay as a target item (i.e. around which the overlay creates some enhanced content, or filtering, or sorting). Additionally, a set of configuration directives specifying the kinds of items (products, services, etc.) that this application are enabled for one or multiple web-pages of the application that augment the existing web-pages within the focal group overlay web server. The existing web-pages are the web-pages that the users see when they click on the mini-button. These items can be uploaded by a focal group application developer to the focal group overlay web server via, for example, a special application-registration form.

For an embodiment, all focal group applications, including those provided within the focal group overlay website by default, use the same API to retrieve and manipulate focal net information. The focal group API provides the focal group application with access to the focal net information. The focal net information can include, but not limited to, social graph links, affinity and proficiency information, user profile information (as restricted by the user\'s access preferences), focal group affiliation, user-created reviews, ratings, and/or any user-related information contributed/created by other focal group applications.

Another embodiment includes providing user web browsing results to other websites, and mining additional information from the other websites for additionally supplementing the web browsing by the user. For example, if a user is looking at a camera of brand “A” in an online photography store, the focal group application can send relevant information to a camera-maker company of brand “B”. The camera-maker company can then send competitive pricing information on the same or comparable product. The information about camera “B” can then be presented to the user browsing information about camera “A” via overlay\'s enhancing the web page. As a result, the user is better informed about comparable products,

As previously described, the information associated with member of the focal group can be adaptively updated. For example, one embodiment includes adaptively updating the information associated with the at least one member based on web browsing of the user. Another embodiment includes adaptively updating the information associated with the at least one member based on web browsing of the members. For example, if a focal group member is considered an expert in tennis (that is, has a high focal group proficiency rating) and is buying a tennis racquet in an online store, the information about the purchase may be considered useful, and therefore, is sent to the focal group and appended to the rest of the existing focal group information.

FIGS. 4A and 4B show examples of visual displays that adaptively depict the relationships between a user and other members of a focal group. The relationships depicted can include, for example, the reliability of one member of the focal group, or an affinity of members of the focal group with a user.

FIG. 4A shows a first focal group member F1 and a second focal group member F2. As shown, the first focal group member F1 has a first activity A1 (for example, playing tennis) involving the second focal group member F2, and the first focal group member F1 has a second activity A2 (for example, purchase of a product) involving or associated with the second focal group member F2. Based on the activities between the focal group members, rankings of the focal group members can be influenced. The rankings can represent the reliability and/or the affinity of each member with other members of the focal group. Clearly, the ranking can adaptively vary over time as interactions between the focal group members occur.

FIG. 4B provides another depiction of the relationship(s) between focal group members, and provides a relative strength of the relationship(s) between the focal group members. As shown, the first focal group member F1 has varying degrees of closeness with the other focal group members F2, F3, F4. The “closeness” can depict an affinity between the first focal group member F1 and the other focal group members F2, F3, F4. As shown, the first focal group member F1 has a high level of affinity with the second focal group member F2 because the two members are depicted as being closer to one another. The first focal group member F1 has a lower affinity with the fourth focal group member because they are depicted as being farther from each other. This display provides an informative method for a focal group member to establish the levels of affinity between the focal group member and other focal group members.

It is to be understood that the displays of FIGS. 4A, 4B are merely exemplary, and that other displays can alternatively or additionally be used to visually display to a user the strengths of relationships between the user and other focal group members.

FIG. 5 is a flow chart that includes steps of an example of a method of overlaying web browsing with focal group intelligence. A first step 510 includes creating a focal group, the focal group including at least one other user having at least one association with the user. A second step 520 includes obtaining information about the at least one other user having relevance to the focal group. A third step 530 includes overlaying web browsing by the user, thereby supplementing the web browsing by the user by providing information of the other users of the focal group.

As previously described, the overlay can be a plug-in that can be loaded on a user\'s computing device. The overlay enables a transformation of the state of information displayed on the user\'s computing devices, thereby supplementing the displayed information based on information of the other users of the focal group,

Although specific embodiments of the embodiments have been described and illustrated, the invention is not to be limited to the specific forms or arrangements of parts so described and illustrated. The invention is limited only by the appended claims.